Escaping Banos

After another interesting directo bus on Easter Sunday – 340km, 9 hours, 4 sightings of no less than pigs on road spits, and one horrendous accident on the Pan-American highway as we approached the Ecuadorian Andes ‘Avenue of the Volcanoes’ – bought us to the tiny town of Banos in Central Ecuador.  So named after the endless thermal baths that dot the valley, it is considered the adventure city of Ecuador littered with adventure shops touting bungee jumps, volcano climbs, and dune buggy rentals (!) on literally every corner.  Our goal was to have a little RnR – we know what have we doing for the last year! – while I actually prepped for a job interview.  

At our scrumptious pancake breakfast the next morning we stared in awe at the kilometer high cliffs that surrounded the town of 15000 people.  The grey clouds that filled the sky to the south was from the 5300m Turugaru volcano, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.  As recently as 1999 a major eruption caused the entire evacuation of Banos and in 2008 destroyed numerous roads and property to the south.  Our guidebook listed it as a ‘potentially hazardous’ visit.  Interesting…

We enjoyed the sunshine and warmth of rooftop terrace, Dee enjoying the sunshine and me getting my head around BC curriculum documents.  We hiked up the cliffs hoping to satisfy our curiosity and see the volcano up close.  While our walk offered tremendous views of the valley but the cloud of smoke continued to obstruct our the volcano.  

We treated ourselves to spa day at the hostel.  It was a steam room with ice water contrast bath.  The treatment lasted an hour consisting of us sitting in this steam ‘seat’ for five minutes followed by pouring ice cold water on us.  It was invigoration to say the least.  All for a grand total of $3.50!   Returning to our room we heard that the power was off across the city and we couldn’t help but wonder if the puffing volcano didn’t have something to do with it.  

Side note from Quito – Banos was closed to tourists the day we left as a major earthquake and eruption  put the city and valley on evacuation notice.  We counted our blessings and await further news…